NLC: Naruto's Path of a Legend
by Kami no Doujutsu
Summary: Naruto goest into Konoha's forest and meets someone who will change his destiny. Slight Refrences from Devil May Cry for weapons. Pairings Undecided
1. Chapter 1

"Normal voice"

'_Thinking voice_'

**"Summoning/ Bijuu voice****"**

**"_Summoning/ Bijuu thinking voice"_**

A six year old Naruto was walking into a forest in the southeast sector of Konoha. Why? Well today was his birthday – October 10th – the anniversary of the defeat of Kyuubi no Kitsune, the strongest bijuu who attacked six years prior to today. See on the day of the attack the Kyuubi was sealed in young Naruto by the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. The technique he used required his life in order to seal the beast and his last dying words were for Naruto to not be seen as the Kyuubi incarnated. No, he wanted him to be seen as the jailor, the savior of Konoha – but to no avail – the villagers couldn't see past they're fear, sorrow, anger, and lack of understanding the true abilities of Fuinjutsu, saw Naruto as a scapegoat of their feelings and shunned him; leading up to him being kicked of the orphanage a couple of hours ago.

"Sigh. This is what my friend Shikamaru would call a 'troublesome' situation. I wonder what this place is." Not even two steps forward he swayed and stumbled, losing his ability to keep balance, feeling a strong unexplainable pull. His eyes were feeling heavier and heavier with each passing second.

"Wha… what's happening?"

*THUD*

* * *

Naruto's eyes begrudgingly peeled open to the scenery of a sewer; a scented free sewer that he felt attuned with. Without a thought he just walked straight down the narrow path as if he was being drawn towards something. When he walked into a huge clearing presented with a caged door he regained his senses.

"Ah, where am I?" On cue, a humungous slit appeared in the cage to reveal a blood red demonic eye that resembled a cat's eye.

"**So my jailer has finally come to pay a visit**. Naruto starred for a second then came up with a conclusion.

"You're the Kyuubi!" Kyuubi starred longingly before speaking with an expression that showed interest.

"**Impressive, you're not as gullible as you look**." Naruto regained his composure and mustered all the courage he had into his unintimidating glare as tears threatened to fall.

"Of course I know about you being inside me! With all the villagers keeping their distance away from me, the whispers, the glares and it doesn't take much to put two and two together since my birthday just so happens to be on the day of your so called demise!" Naruto cried out, with anger letting his bent up feelings out.

"I've been forced to play dumb and hide my true abilities behind a mask, in fear of the villagers or Shinobi attacking me!" Kyuubi laughed, shaking the whole room.

"**You are something else; yes you have endured a lot for a kid your age. The hate, being shunned, labeled as something you're not. I know how that feels kit. I've dealt with it my entire life, but that's beside the point why I called you here. I want to help you become ****strong.**" Naruto sniffled and wiped his tears, looking at Kyuubi in confusion?

"Why help me?" Naruto asked, he didn't understand why _the_ Kyuubi wanted to help him.

"**A war is coming and it's just around the corner. You are the chosen one who will either bring peace or destruction upon the world and this war is going to be centered on people like you, the ****Jinchūriki. Im helping you for the simple fact; that a bijuu and its container should have a pact with each other." **Naruto's eyes lit up. He understood what was said, but one thing caught his attention.

"So will you become my friend?" he asked excitedly with a genuine smile on his face. Now, Kyuubi wasn't known for expressing warm feelings, his reputation and history back that fact up, but from deep inside of him a feeling he hasn't felt since he was a young kit. Kyuubi bore a smile and responded.

"**Yeah, let's be friends. My name is Kurama.**" Naruto walked up to the gate and moved his hand towards Kurama in a shaking motion which Kurama soon followed.

"I'll be the best friend you could ever have, that's a promise of a lifetime, dattebayo!" He exclaimed gaining a laugh from Kurama in the process. Kurama starred at Naruto as he chuckled and sheppishly rub his head.

"**_He really means what he said. He reminds me_ of...**" Kurama came out of his thoughts when he sensed a familiar chakra. His gaze sharpened and groweled. "**_That chakra, no doubt about it's_** **his...but...different.**" Kurama was brought out of his thoughts again when he felt a pair of eyes on him, respectively Naruto's.

"Whats wrong Kurama do you sense someone nearby?"

"**Yeah, it's and old presence that i haven't felt in years. ****Naruto trust me when i tell you this, when you wake up I want you to head north until you reach a dead end i'll explain on the way."** Naruto was suddenly pulled from his sub-consciouness back into his body. "**Now head that way**" Kyuubi pointed in Naruto's mind, which for some reason he could see. He wanted to ask but held that thought for later. Naruto walked for about 10 minutes until he reached the dead end Kyuubi talked about.

"What do i do now?"

"**Now i want you to mold your chakra into the ground in quick bursts. _If i'm right in my assumptions, then we've just found you an ally or a very powerful enemy_."** Naruto did just what Kyuubi had asked him to do and at first nothing happened, but all of a sudden the ground Naruto was standing on had started shaking as if an earthquake started. As soon as it happened it stoped.

"What happened?" Next thing Naruto knew a tree shimmered into existence and it had a man made hole burned in it, like someone lived in it. An old man with long spiky silver hair that reached his waist with shoulder length bangs framing the sides of his face. in old red battle armour over standard black battle shinobi top and pants held by a belt with numerous pouches. He had shinobi gloves on his hands as well. His pants legs had shinobi tape and wore black steel-platted sandals. On his back was a gunbai with three red tomoes in a spinnig formation, came out and greeted him with a warm smile.

"Ah, who are you young man?" he asked while Naruto looked at him longingly.

* * *

_**Konoha: Hokage Office**_

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the reinstated Sandaime Hokage, was in a bad mood today. Why? Well, today was little Naruto's birthday today and as usual he would go by to check up on him, give him his present, and go to Ichiraku Ramen restaurant to feed him to all the ramen he could eat. When he went by the orphange the land lord of the orphanage said they haven't seen him and asked him to not worry about it. Now Hiruzen was a respectable old man, but he could tell when something wasn't right. Being a veteran shinobi and had expirence from all the Great Shinobi Wars gave him a strong sense of awarness. He ordered his Anbu to take the caretakers off the orphanage to Ibiki to be interrogated and sent his most trusted anbu to search for the six year old. It's three days since then and none of the search parties he sent could find him.

Sarutobi walked into the Hokage's Private Study Room and stared at his late succesor's picture. "Minato, i've failed to protect your son. Im sorry."

* * *

_**In the Forest**_

Nauto sat in the make-shift home of the old man and was recapping on what had been revealed to him. "So let me get this straight. Your Madara Uchiha, the legendary Uchiha that fought Hashirama Senju. The leader and Shodaime Hokage of my village, and had supposidly died fighting him, but in a twist of fate you survived and left the battlefield ending up in this forest to spend the rest of your life?"

"Yep." the now revealed Madara Uchiha.

"But... but what about your _'Uchiha Pride'_ wouldn't you have recovered to attack the village for your revenge?" Madara laughed at this. Wasn't he supposed to be some 'all evil Uchiha that wanted to destroy anything that got in his way?

"No young child, I was like that even after my fight with Hashirama, but after a few years... I learned that it wasn't worth it. Why destroy innocent people for the sake of my pride. After I realised that I stayed here to live on as a normal person had. I still trained in my abilities and grew stronger but I eluded myself hear."

Naruto starred at him in amazment at his story. _"wow, he isnt anything like they say he was in class' _Madara was in his own thoughts himself.

_"Hmm, i'll train him he shows much promise. With him being the son of the Yondaime Hokage and Kyuubi's Sandaime no Jinchuriki he'll become a force to be recon with and when the time comes i'll give him.. a gift._

"Say Naruto, how would you like to be my apprentice." He said and counted down in his head _'3..2...1' _

"Yes! That'd be awesome, i'd be able to reach my goal and become Hokage, dattebayo!" Madara laughed at Narutos speach, Kurama did too. This was the one of the few times Naruto actually expressed his _true_ feelings. Madara's smile did a complete 180 degress and turned into his battle hardened face.

"It'll be a rough six years, Naruto. I'll be teaching you mixed Martial Arts, Chakra control, Ninjutsu, survival techniques, battle theories, genjutsu dispersal, genjutsu, fuinjutsu to my best abilites, Jikūkan Ninjutsu, and other things you need to know as a Shinobi. I _won't_ go easy on you. I'm not the famed Madara Uchiha for nothing. I was the leader of the Uchiha clan and feared for my prowess through the Clan Wars Era. Do you think you have what it takes to be my apprentice!"

Naruto's eyes lit up with flames of determination and pumped his fist up at Madara and pointed his index finger at him. "I don't _think _i have what it takes. _I know _I have what it takes! Doesn't matter what you throw at me, i'll overcome any obstacle and achieve my dream! Thats my Nindo!" Madara smiled at him and with a comanding voice, he shouted,

"Well, lets get started!" With that Madara toke Naruto outside the tree-house to prepare him for his training.

* * *

_**Inside Naruto's Seal**_

Kurama bore a smile the entire time through Naruto's Speach. "_**Be careful Naruto, and use all the help you can get. Time is running out and it might be revived and only you the**__, __Yogen no Ko, _the _Kono Yo no Kyūseishu. Can stop it._"

**END OF CHAPTER**

**AN: Hey peeps, its Kami and this is my... second fanfic and a rewrite of a fic i posted sometime last year. I'd like to thank my fellow authors for advice and help. Umm, i will be continuing this story but until then Review. I want to know what you think. You like it? Hate it? Love it? I need to know, i accept ideas and criticism. Also below will be my review on his abilities and translations**

Translations

Gunbai - war fan

_Jikūkan Ninjutsu_ - Space time Ninjutsu

_Yogen no Ko_ - Child of the Prophecy

_Kono Yo no Kyūseishu_- Saviour of the World

Naruto's jutsus' and abilities

The jutsus' that Naruto will posess will not make him overpowered. He won't be using them to the extent Madara can. I will be trying to keep his abilities to High Chuunin at the least. I might create a new sub element style. (^.^)

**Amaterasu - Goddess of the Sun**- the Amaterasu or Goddess of the Sun technique is generated by the right Mangekyou eye It is a Ninjutsu technique which uses the Mangekyou form to create a powerful black fire which can burn through most anything. As it has been said that anything within the Mangekyou vision will burn to ash if consumed by the fire. The fire itself is said to burn for 7 days and 7 nights. The fire is also regarded as the strongest of Mangekyou's physical attacks.

**Tsukuyomi - God of the Moon** - The Tsukuyomi or God of the Moon technique is generated by the left Mangekyou eye. It is a Genjutsu technique which uses the Mangekyou form to initiate a mentally and physically harmful illusion. To utilize the illusion, the clan member will look into the eyes of his opponent and cast a Genjutsu spell on them. The spell takes place in the mind of the one affected, while the jutsu is cast the one it was cast upon is at the total mercy of the Uchiha clan member. The clan member has full control over space and time in the jutsu and can place the one affected through any hell they desire for any length desired. The technique itself only lasts for but a second in reality, but the one affected could have lasted through several days of pain.

**Susano'o - God of the Sea and Storms** - The Susano'o or God of the Sea and Storms technique is generated by both Mangekyou eyes. It is a technique which uses the Mangekyou form to create a sword wielding specter which will surround the user. This specter wields a shield for defense and a blade known as the Totsuka Sword. Anyone or anything cut by the blade will be sealed away into a Genjutsu of blissful oblivion until the end of time.

**Kamui - God's Majesty** - The Kamui or God's Majesty technique is used by Hatake Kakashi. With this technique, Kakashi forms a handseal to activate the Sharingan in his left eye and change it into his Mangekyou form. Kakashi then focuses on a point on the body of his target. The area around the target will then begin to warp and collapse in on itself, resulting in that area being quickly "sucked" out of existence and transported to another location.

**Izanagi - Forefather God** - Izanagi, named for a god who helped spawn many islands and deities, is a Genjutsu technique which was declared a Kinjutsu by the Uchiha Clan. Using Izanagi grants the user the ability to turn wounds and disadvantages into nothing more than dream. It also makes attacks and advantageous maneuvers real, thus giving one complete control over their own reality through an illusion cast on themselves. The creative power of Izanagi was that it uses the mind and spiritual power of Yin to shape reality, and the vitality and physical power of Yang to give it life.  
When jutsu is cast on one's own self, any damage received while it is active is negated. Their crippled form will shudder away like an illusion into nothingness while they appear unharmed away from the danger this result caused the Uchiha to declare it forbidden.  
The jutsu normally has a short time limit which varies from Uchiha clan member to clan member.

**Kagutsuchi - God of Fire-** **Enton • **Kagutsuchi, named for the God of Fire, is a Ninjutsu technique which uses the Mangekyou form of the Sharingan eye to generate a small spiked disk of Amaterasu flames for defense purposes. This jutsu is generated by the right Mangekyou eye.

**Shakuton – Scorch- **Shakuton, or Scorch Element, takes the form of evaporating attacks. Wind (3+) + Fire(2) = Shakuton

**Jinton – Swift- **Jinton, or Swift Element, takes the form of ultra-fast movement. It makes the user fast enough to avoid Taijutsu strikes. Wind(4) + Lightning(2) = Swift

**Yasaka no Magatama - Eight Slopes Comma Jewels **Yasaka no Magatama is a long range Ninjutsu used by Mangekyou Sharingan holders. Uchiha Itachi regards this as his most powerful long range Ninjutsu. After activating his Mangekyou Sharingan, Itachi will utilize his Susano'o Doujutsu. Susano'o will then generate three fiery comma jewels connected via their center with a spectral rope. Susano'o will then hurl them like a shuriken towards his target.

Uchiha Madara can also utilize this jutsu, after forming Susano'o; the spectral warrior will create a long chain of jewels connected via a spectral rope. Susano'o will then remove the jewels and hurl them individually like shuriken at its target. Due to the size and power of the jewels, a powerful defensive barrier is required in turn to be able to stop them.


	2. Chapter 2: Complicated Return

**Chapter 2: Complicated Return**

**AN/: Hey guys, im back with another chapter and im looking for some more reviews so I can know how you guys feel.**

"Again Naruto hit me with all you got!" Naruto ran towards his sensei with the incentive to kill. Naruto jumped in the air and attempted a heal kick towards Madara's head only to be caught and sent flying at a tree 30 meters away with his sensei following in pursuit. Naruto used this to his advantage and relayed off the tree and flew straight at Madara pulling out a kunai knife.

Madara ducked Naruto's attempt to stab him and back flipped a couple feet back to cover some distance. Naruto landed on the ground sweat dripping from his forehead.

'_Damn it! He's always one step ahead of me. I have to think of something quick – wait! I'll use that jutsu' _Naruto couldn't resist the urge to smirk as he summoned 5 _Kage Bunshins_to distract Madara to channel his chakra. The clones dashed at Madara from different angles to gang up on him. HE countered each attack that was thrown at him effortlessly, barely breaking a sweat. He jumped into the air high enough to land a hand stand on one of the Naruto clones and used him as a pole to swing his legs around hitting and dispelling each clone, finished with the rest of the clones he flipped the previous clone in the air to do a reverse 360 dragon heel kick dispelling it in the process.

"Come on Naruto, you'll have to do better with that." He yelled, with the forest being completely deserted with nothing but tall trees, his voice echoed throughout it.

"With pleasure, Madara-Sensei!" Madara turned around to see Naruto in the air flashing through hand signs and wondered curiously.

'_What jutsu is he planning on using?' _Not wanting to get the full blast of what was coming but was too late.

"**_Fuuton No Ken: Reppushou No Fujin_**_!**"**(Wind Style Fist: Great Palm of the Wind God) _Naruto thrust his palms outward towards Madara and sent a speeding saucer the size of a small house. Madara's eyes widened in surprise, but with his years of experience he was able to dodge it.

"Don't think you're out of danger yet Jii-san! **_Fuuton No Ken: Kyusokuna Ken Kaiten_**_!"(Wind Style Fist: Rapid Fist Rotation) _Madara grew a tick mark at the verbal jab at his age but prepared for the worst as a barely visible thin layer of chakra covered his hands which only someone of his skill and control of chakra could do. Naruto shot wave after wave of miniature saucers of wind at Madara with no plan on stopping. Madara redirected and dodging each saucer that was thrown his way and had to say that he was astound and impressed at the stamina his apprentice possessed.

Naruto in just kept throwing more and more completely unscathed at the amount of chakra. He finished off with throwing over 500 saucers to keep Madara busy as he summoned his steel – folding Gunbai in its staff state rushing towards Madara. As he closed the distance towards his sensei he readied saw Naruto dashing towards him and decided to finish the saucers Naruto had him dealing with.

"**_Katon: Housenka Tsumabeni no Jutsu_**" _(Fire Style: Mythical Fire Phoenix Nails Red Technique) _Madara spewed out and equal number of miniature flames that countered Naruto's saucers and pulled out his Gunbai.

Naruto clashed his Gunbai with Madara's in a heated _Kenjutsu _battle with his sensei as they battled for dominance in their unwavering combos.

"Come on Sensei is this all you got! I–" Naruto didn't have a chance to complete his sentence as he felt cold metal on his throat. The Madara in front of him shimmered out of existence. Madara released his hold on Naruto and spoke.

"Check-mate, alright that's enough training for today Naruto." Naruto dusted himself and glared childishly at him.

"Oi, that's not fair you used your Mangekyou Sharingan Madara-Ojii sensei." Madara smacked Naruto upside the head with a tick mark present on his forehead.

"Baka, no one said that life was fair. In this world it's either 'kill or be killed'," Madara's face softened in sadness as he stared at his seven year old apprentice who looks at him innocently.

"This world is filled with hatred that grows stronger each day. Honor doesn't mix in the Shinobi world Naruto, and quit calling me grandpa brat!"

Naruto gained a mischievous smirk and stuck his tongue out at his grandfather figure. "Why Madara-_Ojiji, _you are, what… 90 something years old right?" Naruto ran away laughing with Madara on his tail in anger.

"Get back hear ya little gaki!" Madara chased his Grandson figure around with a small smile on his face. _'I know you don't understand it now, but… I believe you'll fix everything and change this world and maybe, you can inherit this old fool's will. It'll be up to you to fix what I messed up 9 years ago.'_

**_6 years later: Konoha's Hidden Forest_**

A young 13 year old boy in a mesh T-shirt covering his upper torso which showed his years of hard trainings work. Over his mesh shirt was a black cloak/jacket with three zippers, one going down in the center and two at the side of his shoulders. The cloak part of his jacket cuts off at the front leaving two flacks connected to the back. He wore black Shinobi style pants and black tube length Shinobi sandals. On his back was two metal staff in cross position. He starred at the grave he had made for his late sensei with a sad smile.

"Thanks for everything sensei. I don't know what could've happened to me without your training and guidance." Deep within Naruto's mindscape Kurama starred at his Jinchūriki.

"**Naruto, he wouldn't want you to mourn over him. Now go and continue on your path. Don't let his teachings be in vein.**" Naruto lightened up if only a little, at Kurama's words.

"Yeah, you're right Kurama. Let's go pay Konoha a visit, shall we?" He more so said than asked with a smirk. Naruto walked out of the forest entering a training ground that led straight to the village center.

"**Oho ho, Konoha's in for a surprise**."

* * *

**_Konoha: Village Center_**

It was a sunny morning in Konoha, the streets busy as usual with civilians and Shinobi alike but as Naruto walked around towards the Kage tower people glanced at him. Naruto chuckled at the whispers he got.

"_Who is he?"_

"_I don't know, but he's kinda cute."_

"_Nah, Sasuke is still cuter."_

Naruto kinda felt uneasy by the constant stares but dealt with it. As Naruto walked further he noticed someone following him.

"**Naruto.**"

"Yeah, I know Kurama but how should I address this situation?" Kurama thought about it and gained a Cheshire grin that dared to split his face.

"**How bout' we have some…fun.**" Kurama said mischievously causing Naruto to grin on the inside but kept a passive expression as he walked a couple blocks further and made a turn into an alleyway.

"So are you going to show yourselves or are you going to stay hidden." On cue three Anbu appeared before him but had the kanji for 'NE'. Naruto's eyes narrowed as he recalled something Madara had told him years ago before his death.

**_Flashback no Jutsu_**

"_Naruto when my time comes and you enter the village, beware of those who hides beneath the roots and bare the mark 'NE', and their leader Danzo Shimura. _

"_Hai, sensei!"_

**_Flashback no Jutsu Kai_**

"So you're the famous 'NE' Anbu I heard about." Naruto's comment didn't faze them at all which made him wonder even more about what Madara told him. "Now, what would 'NE' want with a kid like me?"

They looked at each other before the Anbu with the boar mask stepped up.

"You are to come with us. Our leader wishes to speak with you." Naruto's face was hidden under his bangs as he spoke but was grinning.'_ Not even fifteen minutes and already I'm getting into a fight._'

"What if I said…no?" the 'NE' Anbu behind the apparent leader drew their Tantos and readied themselves.

"Then you shall be taken by force." Naruto stared at them curiously before he was suddenly behind them with his hand on his staff. The moment he clicked it back inside its holster all four of the Anbu members collapsed.

"Sigh, not even a challenge, oh, well. Next time you send your men Danzo, make sure they don't underestimate me and actually put up a fight." He said disappointedly under his breath as he sealed them in a scroll before heading back on his path.

"**Well... you got a good exercise**" Kurama laughed inside Naruto's head.

'_Ugh, shuut up.'_

* * *

**_Konoha: Hokage Office_**

Sarutobi sat in the office looking at his village with his smoke blower in his mouth. He was knocked out of his daze when he heard a knock on the door. He turned himself around to meet whomever

"Come in." he said in his raspy voice. The door opened to reveal Naruto smiling at Sarutobi. Sarutobi eyes widened at the person he saw walk through his doors.

"How's it going old man?" Naruto walked up to the chair and sat down and waited for Hiruzen to speak.

"Wow, after so many years you've grown into a strong young man fit to be a Shinobi." Naruto rubbed his head and thanked him for the compliment. Naruto knew what was to come next and sure enough it wasn't going to be pretty. Sure enough as Naruto predicted; Hiruzen's mood did a 360 ̊ turn. Naruto's didn't seemed fazed by it at all but in truth it put him on edge and knew that was time to discuss matters professionally.

"Naruto what happened to you that night, and where did you disappear to? None of the search parties I've sent has been able to find you." Naruto sighed and gestured towards the ceiling. Sarutobi narrowed his eyes if only a tiny bit, but dismissed his Anbu guards.

'_Whoever Naruto's been with trained him very well in the Shinobi arts, but question is… who trained him?'_

"I'm gonna summarize this short and make it sweet and simple. Seven years ago I disappeared and more and likely the orphanage probably told you I ran away right?" Sarutobi nodded, listening intently even though he already felt that he knew.

"But the truth of the matter is that they kicked me out that day on my sixth birthday leaving me to starve and support my own. After that I travelled to a forest where I met an old man by the name of Daito Shikikujo*. He cared for me and trained me in the basics in the Shinobi Arts for the past seven years." Sarutobi noticed a strain in Naruto's voice at the mention of the man who cared for him.

"Naruto where is Daito, I would like to meet the man who took care of my godson."

"He died a couple weeks ago of old age." Naruto exclaimed with a hint of sadness in his eyes but Sarutobi's focused eyes caused Naruto stir a little bit. Right now Naruto's motive was to trick Sarutobi and let him stay and complete his dream of becoming Hokage. "So I came back here to officially become a Shinobi as his dying wish."

"Hmm, your story is… interesting at that matter and I guess this could've been avoided but the past is the past.

"Naruto later on I'm going to show you to your new apartment, but right now you need to head down to the Academy." Hiruzen handed Naruto a paper slip and handed it to him. "Go to room 215 and hand this to your new sensei Iruka Umino." Naruto nodded and went on his way towards the Academy.

* * *

**_Konoha: Academy _**

Naruto walked down the hallway going towards the designated class Sandaime had assigned him to.

"**Naruto why didn't you tell Sarutobi about me or Madara?**" Kurama asked as he laid in his cage.

"Oh that, well it would've made things way more complicated if I told him about Madara, especially you. So I decided to stress the truth a little. I want to keep most of my skills a secret and play things out" Kurama chuckled at that going back to sleep.

Naruto saw the class number and walked into the class to see a lot of kids his age instantly staring at him. A few faces he recognized, like Kiba, Shikamaru, Akamaru, and Chouji. Iruka, the class instructor, waved Naruto towards the center as he took the form Naruto had in his hand. Most of the students started murmuring about the new student.

"Class, may I have your attention." He said but failed miserably. Iruka gained a tick mark on his head and did his Demon Head Jutsu.

"SHUT UP BRATS!" The class quieted down and paid attention to Iruka. "Now that I have your attention let me introduce our new student that will be joining us for the Gennin Exam today, go ahead and introduce yourself." Naruto smiled at him and walked forward.

"Thank you Iruka-san is it?" Iruka nodded gesturing for Naruto to continue, "Well my name is Naruto Uzumaki I like a various mixture of fruits, and vegetables but my favorite food is Mizo Ramen. My dislikes would have to be the three minutes it takes for Ramen to cook and those who look down on others. My hobbies consist of training, learning new techniques, reading and drawing. My dream is to be the greatest Shinobi I can be."

"Thank you Naruto for your introduction, now you may be seated." Naruto walked up the rows and sat next to his old friend Shikamaru and Chouji.

"Looked who finally decided to join us. How've you've been Naruto." Chouji asked.

"Ah, I've been good just went on a… little vacation." Shikamaru shook his head and didn't ask anymore but knew that Naruto was hiding something and chuckled.

"It's good to have you back buddy. You know we should hang out sometime and catch up." Naruto nodded to him and turned towards Iruka.

"Alright class the first part of the exam is the written exam that's being past out to you." Everyone got a test past out to them faced down. Iruka looked at everyone and spoke on word.

"Begin!" Papers fluttered as the academy students turned them around and answered the questions.

* * *

**_45 Minutes Later_**

Iruka collected the tests and handed them to Mizuki to grade.

"Alright, now is for the physical portion of the exam. The first part of this portion you'll be graded on your pinpoint accuracy with shuriken and kunai." Naruto stood in line like every other kid and waited for his turn. While he waited for his turn to show his skill in accuracy he was having a… _interesting_ argument with his fury friend.

'_No Kurama, if Ramen never existed, all hope would be lost!'_

"**If ramen never existed you wouldn't have turned out the way are today!"**

'_Yeah, I wouldn't be as handsome, dashing, and smart without my dear sweet ramen-chan.' _Naruto in his mind, was puffing his chest out causing Kurama to roll his eyes.

"**You wish you blond haired monkey! Ah, ha ha haa." **Naruto grew a tick mark as Kurama laughed at that before gaining a mischievous grin.

'_Hey! Your brother would take offense to that, you long eared lemur!' _Naruto danced around in front of Kurama's cage as he growled at him.

"**!, How dare you call me, the strongest and most powerful bijuu Kyuubi no _Kitsune,_ a long eared LEMUR?!"**

Sarcastically Naruto bowed in front of Kurama '_If you're so strong, then why are you sealed in a thirteen year old monkey, all _powerful _bijuu?' _Naruto couldn't help but smirk as Kurama stopped talking. '_Heh he heh, You lose this round ya' old fox.'_

Back to reality, Naruto walked towards the field where the training ground was as Iruka handed him the shuriken. A couple moments later Naruto walked away leaving the students confused as wel as Mizuki and Iruka.

"Naruto, you do know you have to throw the shuriken in your hands at the targets right?" He asked, gaining a confused look from him.

"What? But I did, see?" Naruto pointed at the targets and sure enough the shuriken were place all at the designated spots. Some of the girls look at him in amazement while some of the boys like Kiba murmured words under their breath.

'_Sugoi, he threw them so fast that not even Mizuki and I noticed, and got a 10/10 at that.' _While Iruka was acknowledging Naruto, Mizuki was looking at the boy with envy and hate.

'_Kuso, the damned Kyuubi brat is better as than how he appears. If he passes the Ninpo: Bunshin no Jutsu test then I'll just have to figure out another way to trick him.' _While he was scheming on the inside he had a cheerful smile on the outside and congratulated Naruto.

"Good job, Naruto."

"Arigato, Sensei!" He said as he walked back to his desk ignoring the stares and whispers as he made his way up to Shikamaru. As Naruto sat down he noticed a shadow overlapping him and turned to see the last loyal Uchiha in Konoha, standing over him with a calculative expression on his face, searching for something on Naruto. Naruto looked at him to see him sitting next to him as Naruto went back to talking to Shikamaru. Iruka walked to the front of the class as he brought his check board with him.

"Alright class, I'll call you off name by name to come into this room so me and Mizuki can test you in the jutsu and final portion of the Gennin test." With that Iruka and Mizuki walked into the other room where they started calling off names.

Naruto sat in his seat pulling out a book from his coat. _Fuinjutsu: Rookie, Intermediate, Advanced and Pro Levels; Complete Series by Uzumaki Ruziko*_, as time passed by he sat and read his book calmly and collectively, his ears perked at the sound of his name being called.

"Here's the jutsu you'll be performing that'll complete the Gennin exams, _Kawarimi No Jutsu _(Body replacement technique)_, Ninpo: Henge No Jutsu _(Transformation jutsu)and at least three clones with the_ Bunshin no jutsu_ (Ninja Art: Clone Technique)**_._**" Naruto nodded and transformed into Iruka and substituted with Mizuki.

"Good Naruto, now perform the last technique." Naruto molded his chakra and spoke the jutsu that he was performing.

"**Ninpo:_ Bunshin No Jutsu_**_!"_ Fifteen clones came to existence with their arms folded_._ They were healthy and looked to be intact. Iruka smiled a

"Well done, Naruto!" Iruka exclaimed, "You pass with flying colors. Here's your Hiate*Naruto." Iruka handed Naruto his Hiate and called the next student as Naruto walked out with a black Hiate. Mizuki on the other hand was cursing under his breath as Naruto passed.

'_Kuso, why didn't the Chakra disruption Technique work? Sigh, I'll just have to go with plan B and see if he'll fall for it.'_

Naruto sat by Sasuke with his Hiate on his head and read his book for the rest of the class as the rest of the school day went by. When the Academy let out, Naruto walked by the swing-set and just looked around feeling proud of himself.

"Sugoi, I passed and now I'm one step closer to becoming Hokage! _You'd be proud Ojiji-sensei_." As Naruto was having a little reminiscing moment Mizuki walked towards him with a sincere smile on his face which instantly put Naruto on edge.

"**Naruto be careful, I don't trust this one here. He smells of… snakes.**" Naruto's eyes narrowed in his mindscape as he thought of all the possible people who smell like snakes.

"_Thanks for the heads-up Kurama"_

"Is there anything you need Mizuki-sensei?"

"Nothing much, just wanted to come by and congratulate you on becoming a Gennin today. But I know a secret test to become a Chunin." Naruto kept a straight face and glimmered at the thought of skipping a rank but was only playing alone just to see what Mizuki wanted.

"What's the catch?"

"Ah, always a smart one eh, well the catch is that you have to sneak into the Hokage's Personal Quarters and steal a scroll classified as the 'forbidden scroll', bring it to me at the Easter Forest-side and learn any one or more jutsu, if you can do that, you pass." Naruto thought about it and decided to go along and thwart Mizuki himself.

"Yeah, I'll do it for you sensei." After Mizuki informed Naruto of what he was supposed to do he left. Naruto walked

"**Naruto what do you plan on doing with him?**"

"I want to see what he's planning, even though I have a good guess." Naruto received no response from his lifetime partner and went to the Hokage office to get his new apartment.

"**Heh heh, lets' test your true abilities and see how far you've improved kit.**"

"Yeah, this'll be fun, but first, I got to get the keys to my apartment."

* * *

**_Naruto's Apartment 7:30pm_**

Naruto settled in nicely in the moderate size apartment. He had already unpacked and now was preparing for his _mission_. He grabbed the needed supplies such as: Kunai, Shuriken, his custom made seals, etc.

"Almost forgot this. If anything happens, I'll have this to use for retaliation." Naruto grabbed his staff and positioned it into his holster on his back, while walking out the door; a couple blocks away from his home he walked up a building in an alley and headed for the Kage Tower.

* * *

**_Hokage Tower 7:55pm_**

Naruto was in the tower and had just disrupted all the security seals in the office and entered safely into the Hokage's personal quarters. He went to a shelf that had scrolls and noticed some high classed protector seals and was working on disabling them.

"Man, this is definitely _not_ a Chunin exam that I've heard of before." He chuckled, if anything this had to be like an Anbu Infiltration mission but continued his mission. He finished breaking the seals and searched for the scroll labeled 'forbidden' which comically didn't take long but saw three scrolls with his name labeled on them. He hesitated on taking them.

'_Why does Jii-san have scrolls with my name on them? Is there something he doesn't want me knowing? Hmm, i'll deal with this later.' _Naruto eventually took the scrolls after coming to a decision and left using the _Shunshin no Jutsu._

* * *

**_Konoha Eastern Forest 8:25_**

Naruto sat in the forest reading and copying some jutsus from the forbidden scroll.

"Ok, _Kage Bunshin no jutsu_, check; _Ninpo: Bunshin Daibakuha no jutsu_(Ninja Art: Clone Explosion Jutsu)_, _check. Oho! _Genjutsu: Kokuangyo no jutsu_(Genjutsu: Bringer of Darkness Technique). This looks promising. Hmm, the other jutsu seems either gross or to self-sacrificing." Naruto browsed more throughout the scroll before halting to a particular jutsu.

"S-Sugoi, Yondaime-sama's famed jutsu. The jutsu he used to end the _Sandai No Shinobi Senso*,_ the _Raijin no jutsu_!" Naruto sat there in wonder before he copied every single detail about the detail and an interesting fact about how the Yondaime used advanced sub-elemental combination, _Jintõn (Lightning + Wind = Swift)*_. After that Naruto practiced his three new jutsu for 45 minutes before he sensed someone coming and recognized that it was Iruka.

"Naruto, do you think you're doing stealing the Forbidden Scroll?" Iruka also noticed that Naruto looked roughed up and assumed that his student had been training. '_Naruto's been training and seemed to have done a lot if he's sweating the way he is now.'_

"Oi Iruka-sensei, I've been learning jutsu and training. Mizuki-sensei said that it was a test, do I pass." Naruto exclaimed innocently while comically in his mind, a chibi Naruto was manically laughing at his prank.

'_Why would Mizuki have-'_before Iruka could put A and B together, he narrowly dodged a Giant Shuriken which would have maimed him. There standing where the Shuriken was thrown was Mizuki in all his glory.

"Good job in getting the scroll Naruto, now hand it over to me and you'll pass."

"Don't do it Naruto, Mizuki's trying to trick you!" Naruto looked back and frothed between them looking confused and still held up his act.

"W-which one of you am I to believe?" Naruto held his hands on his as if he had a major migraine. Mizuki grinned viciously at Naruto.

"Naruto do you want to know a secret that the Hokage made a law that made sure no-one should ever know of?" Iruka's eyes widened while Naruto looked curious and clueless.

"What law, what's supposed to be kept from me?"

"No Mizuki! You know that it's forbidden to talk about _it_." Mizuki's grin grew as he continued and ignored Iruka's plea.

"Twelve years ago the Yondaime Hokage defeated the Kyuubi, but not like they had us teach you. The nine tails is a mass of destructive chakra with a puny intellectual span. So the fourth couldn't kill it. He did the next best thing. Sealed it inside of you, you are the nine tailed fox!" On the inside of Naruto's mindscape Kurama was snarling at the little jab on his intelligence.

"**Grrr!"**

'_Calm down Kurama I'll deal with him.'_

Naruto looked at Mizuki blankly for a few seconds and started laughing.

"Hahahahaha, y-you...t-think I didn't...k-know about that." Naruto laughed out, shocking Iruka and Mizuki.

'_H-he knew?!' _They both thought at the same time. Naruto looked up with a straight face and spoke plainly.

"Yeah Mizuki, I knew for a while now about Kyuubi. And one thing, quit calling me Kyuubi. Come on now, I know that _Fuinjutsu _is a very complex and unknown art but it's basically like sealing a kunai into a scroll. Just because you seal it in a scroll doesn't mean that it's the kunai itself." Naruto explained sagely. Iruka looked at Naruto proudly as he handled the situation perfectly. Mizuki fumed and glared at Naruto.

"I don't care; you're going to give me that scroll, even if I have to pry it from your corpse."

"No!" Iruka threw shuriken at Mizuki which he dodged effortlessly but glared at him but was confused.

"Why are you protecting him? He holds the very thing that robbed you of your parents. Why?!" He just didn't understand it. Why protect someone who he hated. It didn't make sense right?

Naruto on the other hand, was shocked. He didn't anticipated Iruka actually stepping in to protect him.

"It's true, I did hate Naruto for what he held, and the fact that he had something to do with my parents' death, but when he came in today, I didn't see the Kyuubi. I saw a twelve year-old misunderstood boy who grew up without family just like I did. So that's why I'm protecting him. Because it's my duty as his sensei." He said taking a stance. Mizuki just straight up bawled his eyes out in laughter.

"Wow Iruka you're even a bigger softy than I thought," he said going through hand seals putting the duo Shinobi on alert.

"**_Doton: Shūjin dantō_**_ (Earth Release: Prisoner Decapitation) _Speeding tremors under the earth headed for Iruka as he stumbled to keep his balance. Naruto jumped on top of a tree but saw that his sensei didn't have the luxury of doing the same.

"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted but was too late and stared in horror at what happened next.

Iruka was incased in an Earth like Coffin that closed in and crushed Iruka then returned slowly to the ground leaving a bloodied and battered Iruka, barely standing.

"You know Iruka, I was gonna let you live but now," Mizuki grabbed his last Giant Shuriken and readied himself to throw it, "You'll be the first to die!" Mizuki enforced chakra in his hand to increase the momentum and speed of the Shuriken.

Iruka stood there with his eyes closed as he waited for the Shuriken to end him. _'I guess this is it for me.' _Iruka waited for the final blow but it never came. He opened his eyes to see Naruto. Naruto looked back at Iruka and held a sincere smile.

"Don't worry Iruka–sensei, I'll handle this now." Iruka was relieved when he heard this and passed out, due to the stress. Naruto turned back to face Mizuki who was stunned that Naruto had slammed his staff into the hole of the giant shuriken; stopping it from hitting its target in the process. Naruto looked straight at Mizuki and released his killing intent with his cold, icy-blue eyes staring into Mizuki like a predator would do when hunting prey.

"For what you just pulled, I'm not gonna show you any mercy." He spoke with a masculine, mono tone.

Mizuki smirked at this. "What could you possibly do to me Kyuubi-brat; you couldn't even finish me in one blow." Naruto instantly jumped in the air with his staff and formed a half ram seal while enforcing chakra into his staff.

"**_Fuin: Poru Enchò _**_(Sealing Art: Staff Extension jutsu)_." Naruto's staff extended and smacked Mizuki square in the face knocking him back four yards. Naruto landed and heard what he assumed to be Mizuki crashing into a tree. Naruto Shunshined towards to Mizuki to check out his condition and hovered over him.

"Kuso, I over did it with that blow, but… that's what you get for what you did to Iruka-sensei." He Shunshined to Iruka and carried him on his shoulder.

"Don't worry Iruka-sensei; the medic ninja will heal you." Naruto with the two Chunin on his shoulders carried them back to the village with the scroll tied on his back.

* * *

**_Konoha Village…_**

Tonight was a very stressful night for Hiruzen Sarutobi. His plans were very simple and easy. Get paper work, meetings, break, more paper work, then go home, simple as that. But unfortunately, he didn't get that. Right now he had a head ache and it was slowly getting worse. At first when the whole situation had started, his feelings were mixed, but now that he had watched everything that had transpired in the forest with Naruto he gained a head ache in return. I guess you could say altogether he was relieved that everything ended up turning out well.

"Good job Naruto. You're growing up into a fine Shinobi… Ugh this head ache." He went and left the office mumbling.

* * *

**_2 Weeks Later…_**

It's been two weeks since the incident and Naruto right now was walking to the Academy to receive his Gennin Team.

"Ah, I wonder who'll be on my team."

"**You'll just have to find out." **Kurama said from his slumber before quickly going back to sleep

"Aw man, I don't wanna wait!" Naruto cursed under his breath as he thought back to when he pestered the Hokage about who'd his team be. Sadly Hiruzen refused all the attempts even his _Orioke no Jutsu_.

"Sigh, I guess it can't be helped. " Naruto sighed in defeat. He continued a little farther before he stopped at the Academy for a moment before continuing and entering a new chapter of his life,even if it was going to be weird and tiresome.

**AN: / Hey guys, here's another chapter of NLC: Path of a Legend, I know the end was kinda off a little but hey, it is what it is**. **I want to give a shout out to my three fellow authors: Kyuubi16, devilzxknight86 and VFSNAKE. Thanks guys for your reviews; for those who don't know them, check out their pages and read their stories. One last thing, check out Kyuubi16's and my Twitter page.**

Daito Shikikujo – is a name that Naruto came up with.

Fuinjutsu book of the Uzumaki clan – Naruto went with Madara to his clan's village and found a couple of things there that he took back. This book was one of them.

Sandai No Shinobi Senso - The Third Great Shinobi War

Raijin – This is my way of explaining Yondaime's jutsu. I'll explain it later on in the story. Right now I just wanted to introduce it to Naruto for future studies, so no. Naruto won't be learning Minato's jutsu until… the story has progressed.

Staff Extension - Naruto has _Many_ seals written on his staff so he can do some pretty awesome things, if i had to say so myself.

**Read, comment, and have a blessed day. Ja Ne! **


	3. Chapter 3: Gennin Teams and Bell Test

**Chapter 3: Gennin Team **

**AN: / Hey guys just want to thank everyone who took the time to read my story and those who reviewed. Shout outs to Engineer4ever, Tactition101, and freowin for the constructive criticism. It helped me with this chapter. Anyway, without further ado… ACTION! **

Naruto walked into class and sat next to Sasuke and pulled out his book on Fuinjutsu and read peacefully…

"HA! My foot was an inch further than yours Ino-pig!"

"In your dreams Forehead, I was obviously the first one to enter!"

"What did you call me Pig!?" Naruto snickered in amusement before getting back to reading. The two girls marched up the rows and stopped where Naruto was and stared at him.

"You, Naruto," Naruto looked up to see Sakura an Ino hovering over him. "Get up out of my seat so I can sit next to _Sasuke._" She demanded, but said Sasuke's name with stars in his eyes. Naruto glanced at Sasuke for a brief second at the corner of his eye. Even though he didn't show it Sasuke didn't want to be bothered with these fan girls. So Naruto simply just returned back to reading. Sakura was fuming in anger while Ino laughed and everyone else laughed at her.

'_I'll show you not to ignore me idiot_'. Sakura cocked her fist back aiming for Naruto face and actually, came really close but was stopped by his hand while he still was focused on his book.

"You know, it's not nice trying to hit people Sakura–san, especially since in _Konoha Shinobi Conducts: Article 45 – Section 2_ states that: 'if a fellow Shinobi of Konoha attacks another Konoha Shinobi out of any reason other than the threat of the Hokage, Shinobi team, and or acts of treason and defection will be given punishment by the current Hokage.' So I'd think before acting, it just might save your life." With that Naruto's hand receded and for the fifth time continued reading. The whole class stared at them before going back into their own conversations.

"**Come on Naruto did you have to embarrass the girl like that?" **Kurama smirked inside the caged, not that Naruto could see that.

'_Heh never knew you for the compassionate type Kurama.'_

"**I'm not, just curious that's all.**"

'Well in the Konoha conduct it clearly states that–' Kurama interrupted him.

"**You had me at well.**" Kurama yawned not caring that he interrupted Naruto. He ended their connection while Naruto sighed. Iruka walked in which stopped most students and sat down to hear team placements.

"Alright class I'll read you the team placements so we can get started." Before he continued a student asked.

"What about Mizuki-sensei?" A random student asked which go the attention of most of all the students.

"He won't be joining us today; he has some issues to be dealing with." He said simply which satisfied the students.

"Ok, Team 1…" Naruto tuned out Iruka not paying attention.

"Team 7: Naruto Uzumaki…" Naruto's ears perked and looked up with a smile on his face, scooting up closer in his seat, "Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha. Your sensei will be Kakashi Hatake." Naruto's face changed for the worse as it lit down in defeat.

'_Aw man, why them' _Naruto cried out in his head

"**Aha ha haa, you really do have your luck cut out for you, ha ha haa**" Naruto grunted in response.

'_Sigh, calm down maybe this won't be as bad as I'm thinking. Sasuke's…jutsu skills are ok. Plus his clans Taijutsu, I not gonna lie, Madara-sensei's clan Taijutsu is nothing to laugh at. Sakura's smarts are an advantage… right?'_

Sasuke's only response was a simple "Hn." And Sakura… come-on now, you know how she felt about being on the same team with Sasuke and how she gloated about it to Ino – which caused them to have a mental glare war. So as Iruka got finished with naming the rest of the other teams he dismissed the class and told them to wait for their jounin leaders in a respected area.

It was 45 minutes later and every team had left the classroom except Team 7 and they were pretty pissed, well Sakura was the only one showing her feelings but they each felt the same.

"Ugh, where is our sensei." She wined loudly.

"I don't know, but it's getting tiresome waiting for someone who doesn't bother to show up on time." Naruto stated while looking out of his book. Sasuke glanced at Naruto and then the book he held and looked at it curiously.

"Hey… lose– Naruto, what's your book about?" he asked, correcting himself.

Naruto looked up out of his book when he heard Sasuke."Oh this book, It's a Uzumaki Clan heirloom book on Fuinjutsu." Naruto boasted with pride. "You see, a couple of years ago I'd went traveling with my grandfather to my ancestral home. From what my grandfather told me before he passed, was that they were the best Fuinjutsu Masters in the world and that it was basically tradition for us Uzumaki to use it to the highest degree." Naruto explained.

"So you decided to learn it to keep up the family tradition." Sasuke concluded gaining a nod from Naruto.

"Yeah; since I got this book and the other clan heirlooms, I've been reading this non-stop. Pretty cool huh." Naruto stated ecstatically. Sasuke lost interest but nodded in agreement.

"Hn. That's… interesting," was the reply Naruto received. He pulled out a scroll from his black cloak. He un-scrolled it and summoned a small paint brush and ink. Sasuke glanced in interest while Sakura had a clueless expression on her face.

"Hey Naruto-san, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Oh, I'm just drawing a Fuinjutsu seal script." He steadily drew on the door the kanji for 'repeated slamming' and drew transmutation symbols to complete the layout and formula of the seal. For the finishing touch he drew a small seal on the floor at the entrance. He packed everything back up and went to his seat with a devilish smirk.

"Ah, there we go now let's just wait for the magic to happen." He said while grinning like a mad man who sent chills up both of his teammates.

**5 Minutes Later…**

Naruto sat in his seat just waiting. When he heard the door open he instantly scooted to the edge of his chair, so did Sasuke and Sakura.

'_Cha! About time he came.' _The first thing Naruto noticed about the jounin was his silver, gravity defying hair. He wore the standard jounin outfit with finger-less gloves. Also he had a mask covering his mouth and had his Hiate slanted over his left eye. The moment he stepped into the doorway the door instantly slammed on him repeatedly as he continuously tried walking in again.

"Ha haa! Checkmate!" Naruto hunched over in laughter.

"N-Naruto!" Sakura gasped in shock.

"What? That was funny. He…d…deserved it." Naruto wheezed out. Kakashi walked in with a frown on his face looking battered up with a light red mark on the visible amount of skin on his face.

"Yo sensei, you alright, you looked a little battered up." Naruto caught his breath and calmed down after his 'amazingly flawless prank'. Kakashi looked at them all and spoke for the first time since he entered the classroom.

"Well, my opinion of you is… I hate you." He said with a forced smile. Sakura and Sasuke glared at Naruto who chuckled weakly and scratched the back of his neck.

"Anyway, I want the three of you to meet me on the roof in three minutes." With nothing left to say, Kakashi Shunshined to the roof of the building leaving the three of them to walk the stairway up.

_**2 ½ minutes later**_

"Alright, I want the three of you to introduce yourselves. You know, likes, dislikes, hobbies. All of the fun stuff."

"Can you give us an example sensei?" Sakura asked. Kakashi thought about it then shrugged.

"Yeah I guess; my name is Kakashi Hatake, my likes… I don't feel like sharing, dislikes, you don't need to know. Hobbies and dreams… guess I never really thought about them." Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura stared blankly thinking the same thing in unison.

'_All we learned was his name'_

"Well pinkie, your up next." Kakashi said pointing at Sakura. She grunted in anger but didn't pay Kakashi any mind.

"My likes are…" Sakura glances and blushes at Sasuke. "My hobbies," She blushes and giggles again, while looking at Sasuke. "A-and my dreams..." Sakura curls and giggles like the fan girl she is.

Kakashi on the other hand sighs sadly and shakes his head. '_So, her reputation as a Sasuke fan girl doesn't fail to please. Sigh, I'm gonna have to break her out of it – if they pass my test of course.'_

"Alright Blondie, your next." Naruto received a tick mark at Kakashi's jibe at his hair and tried to ignore it.

"My name's Naruto Uzumaki, my likes are reading, Fuinjutsu, and… I guess animals. My dislikes are arrogant and greedy people. My hobbies include training, reading, studying; anything that involves me being active in some form of way is my hobby, especially gardening and my dream…" Naruto pondered on his dream since he never really thought about it but soon got a mental image of the one he called his grandfather.

"My dream is to become the best Shinobi I can to fulfill a promise." Kakashi nodded towards him at his dream.

"Broody, your turn." Sasuke scowled at him and spoke.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha; I don't have many likes… I have many dislikes. My hobbies are my personal business that I don't feel you need to know. And my dream… no, my _ambition_ is to find and kill a certain man." He finished with a gloomy attitude. Sakura's gleamed and was pledging how dreamy Sasuke was while he ignored her. Naruto read his book ignoring her too but Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the last sentence Sasuke said. He knew that what happened six years ago would affect Sasuke, but never thought how severe it was. Well to him, it was another thing that he would help work on if they pass.

'_I see, so I have an avenger and a fan girl who fauns over him; with the last student being the only normal one. Man, I have my work cut out for me.'_

"Good introductions, now for me to explain the mission we'll be doing." Kakashi cheerfully said. Naruto had a grin on his face and was the first to respond. "What type of mission Kakashi-sensei?" he asked. Kakashi gave his famous 'eye smile' and answered with just as much enthusiasm and said only two words.

"Survival training." Was what they got and received a groan from Sakura, a glare from Sasuke, and a frown from Naruto.

'What is your game sensei' he thought, continuing to hold his frown waiting for him to explain.

"We did plenty of training at the Academy Kakashi-sensei, why are doing this just after graduating?" Sakura asked, wanting Kakashi to shed some light on the subject.

"This training isn't like anything that you've done in the academy… think of it as a test." The three Gennin's heads instantly shot up. Sasuke spoke this time.

"We just did the Gennin test a week ago. Wasn't that the official exam?"

"No, that exam was to test who was _qualified_ to be Gennin so it could weed out those who had the potential to officially become Gennin." Naruto was the next to ask a question that sparked to mind.

"So what's this test that supposedly you're going to administrate over and what's the disadvantage?" Kakashi had a smile on his face and started chuckling before bursting into laughter.

"What's so funny sensei?" Sakura had pretty much had it with the non-sense and was clearly showing it.

"You won't like it," He dragged out clicking back into his serious mode. "The truth is that out of all the twenty-seven students that _qualified_ to pass; only nine will actually stay and become Gennin while the others will be sent back for another year. The failing rate of this test is 67%." Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto were staring at Kakashi in shock.

"See, I told you wouldn't like it." He laughed.

Naruto's demeanor changed from shock to serious. "I don't really care about your stupid test. All I know is that we won't fail and will _ace_ your test." Naruto stated, rekindling Sakura's and Sasuke's confidence. Kakashi smiled at Naruto's little speech.

"Oh well, don't say I didn't warn you. Tomorrow at Training Ground #7, 7:00 a.m. is when and where we'll have the test. And before you go, I'd recommend you don't eat anything for breakfast. You'll throw up." He said with an eye-smile and left via Shunshin. Sakura and Sasuke began to leave but were stopped by Naruto calling their names.

"Hey Sasuke, Sakura; before you guys go I want you to discard the last two things Kakashi just said."

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, "Kakashi pacifically said –"

"No, he suggested that we shouldn't eat breakfast. Now Sakura, you're the smartest student that past this year right?" Naruto received a nod and continued. "Alright now think about this. Why would he want us to skip the most important meal of the day?" Naruto stated leaving them to ponder about this new revelation.

"Yeah, so make sure you eat breakfast. See ya." He finished, with them all leaving going home to prepare for tomorrow.

_**Training Ground #7 10:35 a.m.**_

Sakura and Sasuke were waiting for not only Kakashi, but for Naruto too.

"Ugh! What's taking them long?!" Sakura screeched in anger. Only a second later Naruto appeared reading his favorite book.

"Where have you've been?! We've been waiting three hours!" Naruto stepped back with his hands up.

"H-hey, calm down Sakura-san, Kakashi isn't here yet so technically I'm not late." He protested. Sakura stared at him for a few seconds but became satisfied with his answer making Naruto sigh in relief. Kakashi soon showed up getting a few choices of words from Sakura.

"Ma, ma,you see –" Kakashi was interrupted by an irritated Naruto.

"Quit the crap Kakashi and explain the damn test already." Naruto demanded.

"Alright, alright; the bell test is simple," he said holding up two bells. "All you have to do is steal these two bells from me."

"Kakashi-sensei, there are only two bells." Sakura pointed out. Kakashi nodded.

"Exactly, this only means that one of you will fail and get tied to the stump; while the other two will eat lunch."

He paused, waiting for their stomachs to growl but didn't hear any. "I set the timer for 12:00 p.m.-" Before Kakashi could start, Naruto had dashed with his Staff in hand ready to strike. As soon as he was an inch away Kakashi had already disappeared and was behind Naruto with his hand holding Naruto's arm behind his back and his other holding a kunai to the back of the blonde's head. The other two stood in a stance but you could see the shock on their faces.

'_So this is the power of a Jounin.' _Sasuke thought.

"Ma ma Naruto, I didn't say start did I?" he asked. Not waiting for an answer from the Gennin he shouted to them. "Hajime!"

Sasuke and Sakura instantly left to hide and strategize while Naruto stood in place, backing up a few steps and pulling out his book.

"You're not relatively the smartest are you?"

"Nah, I just want to test my abilities and very them from a Jounin's." Naruto said closing his book and pocketing it before dropping into a stance. Kakashi sighed and closed his book, but stood tall in place. Sasuke and Sakura were hidden and were watching the events unfold.

'_Idiot, what are you doing? Challenging a Jounin none of the less. From the performance earlier should have already told him that he wasn't a match for him. Never mind, I gotta find Sasuke-kun.' _With that thought Sakura went searching for her love interest. Naruto instantly vanished and appeared behind Kakashi and attempted to knock him off-balance by performing a 360 under-leg sweep. Kakashi jumped and back flipped in mid-air to distance himself from Naruto. Naruto was already mid dashed and threw consecutive punches and mid-chest leg combos only for Kakashi to swat them away. Naruto grabbed his Staff and Kakashi grabbed a kunai.

'_Hm, Naruto's form is excellent. Whoever taught him did extremely well._' "First form: Taijutsu. Let's see how you very." Naruto dashed at Kakashi when he finished talking.

"With pleasure, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto threw a right hook swing at Kakashi and swung his right leg as soon as Kakashi blocked. They brawled in various Taijutsu forms at Medium Chunin Speed for a while. Naruto backed away from Kakashi after fighting for dominance with his staff against Kakashi's kunai. Naruto was distance away from Kakashi; beads of sweat rolling down the sides of his face while Kakashi was unfazed.

'_Man, this reminds me of my first spar with Madara-Ojii. I gotta by some more time. Alright let's crank it up a notch.' _Naruto flashed through a sequence of zodiac signs and pronounced his jutsu.

"_Fuu no Suiton Yugo: Kenjin kiri no buresu_." (_Wind and Water Style Fusion: Misty breath of the Sage_). Naruto exhaled a combustion gust of wind that hurled towards Kakashi. Kakashi sped through two hand signs and exhaled a giant fireball of equal size making a cloud of steam cover the area. Naruto toke this chance to perform another jutsu to draw Kakashi out.

"_Suiton: Tsunami!" (Water Style: Tidal Wave!). _The steam that had covered the training field piled over itself and condensed into an enormous wave of water that was a couple of feet higher than the average male height, made its way to Kakashi. Kakashi had to think fast to not get drenched so retaliated by uncovering the Hiate over his eye to show a fully matured Sharingan. Naruto had caught a slight glimpse of it and was shocked. How could his sensei have a Sharingan? He'd have to investigate on it later but right now he had to finish the fight now since he was running low on chakra. Kakashi flashed through hand seals.

"_Katon: Dai Housenka no Jutsu!" (Fire Style: Grand Phoenix Flower Jutsu!) _Kakashi's barrage of flames bombarded the Tidal Wave Jutsu and cancelled each other out causing extreme heated steam to fill the area. Naruto shielded his eyes trying to find his opponent only to hear his voice behind him.

"Shinobi Principle#3, you shouldn't let your guard down Naruto. _Konohagakure no jutsu: Itami no Chitose." (Hidden Leaf's jutsu: One-Thousand Years of Pain). _Kakashi formed the Ram hand sign and gave Naruto a chakra induced oil rig sending Naruto flying through the air screaming like a girl. When he landed, he puffed in a small cloud of white smoke.

'_Ah, so he does know the Kage Bunshin. He used it as a decoy to fight me the entire time. And if he does know the hidden secret to the jutsu he could use the info and memories he gained to his advantage. Let's see how this plays out.' _Sasuke and Sakura, who were hidden, stared at the scene with tick-marks. 'Kakashi-sensei gave Naruto an ass poke?'

Naruto was hidden, standing on a tree branch and was silently cursing his clone. _'God, that stupid clone showcased some jutsu that I'd wanted to keep hidden until I deemed ready to exploit. Oh well, gotta' figure out how I'm going to get that bell.' _

Kakashi was about to go find Sasuke but found him in front of him full speed. Sasuke engaged Kakashi. The two attacked each other in a serious of Taijutsu katas. Sasuke backed up flashing through hand signs.

"_Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!"_(_Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!) _Kakashi eyes narrowed as he dodges the massive ball of flames. The flames collided with a tree and exploded on impacted leaving smoke. Sasuke searched for Kakashi with his guard up.

'_Where is he? Left, Right, Behind, Above?"_

"Below" a voiced whispered to him. It was too late for him to escape as he was pulled into the ground neck-deep. Kakashi appeared before him and glared at the Jounin.

"Get me out of here!" He yelled.

"Ma. Ma Sasuke-chan. No need to have a hissy fit. I'll be back to deal with you." With that he left in a plum of white smoke.

Naruto was searching for Kakashi but stopped in his tracks when he spots the lunch Kakashi had prepared for them and thought back to Sasuke and Sakura. "Hmm, maybe I should help them out." He thought. _'What do you think Kurama?'_

'**I could care less but I'll give you something to think about. Remember when the bag of bones said that it was essential to work with others more than alone?**'

'_But Kakashi said that whoever gets the bells will be passed while one gets sent back but… I've never heard of a two-man team. This is all fishy; I better watch how events play out while I figure this out.'_ Naruto summoned a shadow clone as a stall for time. Naruto pondered on it all before he remembered a lesson from Madara during his training.

_**Flashback no Jutsu**_

_Naruto was breathing heavily and sweating rapid beads of bullets. At the time he was currently nine years old and was taking a break. Madara walked up to him and handed him a jug of water._

"_You did well Naruto, you're becoming stronger every day."_

"_Thanks Madara-sensei! Ever since I met you I've been improving in my Shinobi skills. With this power I will be able to protect everyone by myself. All my loved ones; I'd be able to prove myself." He yelled in excitement. But this caused Madara to sigh._

"_Naruto, that type of life will only cause pain to your loved ones." Naruto stared at him in confusion. Madara continued. "Naruto there is a system that was made during the reign of the Nidaime Gokage. Now instead just of a single Shinobi taking missions the villages encourage teamwork to reduce casualties and to build bonds that will further increase the safety of the village. What I'm trying to get at here is that you'll have to work together with people then doing everything on your own." _

"_Ah, I understand Madara-sensei."_

_**Flashback end**_

Naruto perked up in understanding after remembering that certain memory. He went to go search for the others. _'Kami, how did I not think of this before?! Teamwork is the one key thing that villages emphasize on. I don't have much time I–' _Naruto was interrupted as the bell rung stopping him in mid-step. He clenched his right hand and cursed under his breath. "Kuso." He walked towards the three stumps. Sakura got tied to the stump in the middle.

"I'm honestly disappointed in all three of you. None of you ever thought to look for the others for your own self gain." The Gennin were about to protest but Kakashi shot them down with a glare. "Sasuke you didn't even care about either of your students, only believing that they'd only slowed you down. Sakura all you did was look for Sasuke leaving Naruto behind. Naruto you ended up noticing the true meaning of the test but it was still too late. The meaning of this test was teamwork." He lectured getting saddened expressions from all of them.

"If you don't learn it now then later on it'll bite you. Now I'll give you one more chance but don't feed or untie Sakura or you're all gonna fail." With that Kakashi puffed away via Shunshin. As soon as Naruto was sure Kakashi was gone he fed Sakura who was shocked and surprised.

"Naruto what are you doing, Kakashi said not to feed me." She felt the ropes loosen and saw that Sasuke had undid them.

"Listen Sakura, you heard what Kakashi just said, that this test is solemnly based on teamwork. We can't do that with you not at your best and besides, I already ate." He said smiling at the end. Sakura nodded cheerily and ate to her hearts consent. A moment later a puff of smoke appeared with Kakashi glaring evilly at them and bellowed.

"**YOU!**" Naruto readied himself with his staff.

"Pass!" HE said raising his thumb up at them and flashed his famous eye smile. The Gennin sighed in relief. "So you finally got it." He received nods from them.

"Good come over here." He ushered them over towards a big triangular slab of polished black stone with names on them. "This stone holds all the names of the village's heroes." He smiled weakly. "Those who had died fighting for their comrades and village has their name engraved on this rock. Some of my closest friends' names lie here. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, that's true, but those who abandon friends are worse than scum." He said leaving them in deep thought.

"Just remember that, anyway missions start tomorrow team seven, meet me here at seven o' clock. Ja ne." With that he disappeared, leaving them by themselves. Naruto was the first to speak up.

"Well I'm off. See you guys tomorrow." He left with the other to soon after following suit returning to their homes.

_**Hokage's Office**_

Every jounin that had been assigned to test a team of fresh Gennin were summoned to the Hokage's office to report if they're team had passed or failed. Sarutobi waited for everyone before starting. When he noticed everyone, even Kakashi, was present he started.

"I'm glad everyone could make it. Now let's get started." He said ushering for the jounin to start off.

"Team 1, failed."

"Team 2, failed."

"Team 3, failed."

"Team 5, failed."

"Team 6, failed."

"Team 7, passed." Kakashi said reading his book without a care in the world. This caused all of the jounin present to look at Kakashi bewildered. He hasn't passed a _single_ Gennin team, and this time he actually did. The jounin murmured and whispered amongst each other. Sarutobi sighed and signaled them to be silent.

"Continue." He bluntly stated.

"Team 8, passed."

"Team 9, passed." Asuma was the last to finish and Hiruzen spoke.

"Since team 10 is still active I'll give you one more final advice, to those who passed their Gennin squads. Make sure you train them well. They're our future generation of Shinobi and one day will be the ones protecting you. Good luck, meeting adjourned." All the jounin in the room walked out the door except Kakashi. As soon as everyone was out he slammed his book shut and shoved it in his pouch.

"So tell me, how was your team?"

"Teamwork wise… they have a lot of work to do. Sasuke showed excellent strategy tactics, proficient Tai and Ninjutsu skills. The only hindrance is his lust for revenge and his stubborn attitude. Sakura… is smart and seems more like a Genjutsu or Medic-nin."

"And Naruto?" He asked with a grim façade with his hands covering his face except his eyes. Kakashi's demeanor changed and matched Sarutobi's.

"He was the most surprising of all. He displayed Mid-Chunin Tai and Kenjutsu skills with high Chunin level speed. He still needs to train and gain a little more experience, but I'm sure that'll train in probably change in four or five years. His Ninjutsu on the other-hand is low Jounin at best. He summoned a tsunami as big as a full-grown tree. He also mastered the Kage Bunshin. All that time I was fighting a Kage Bunshin." This caused Hiruzen's eyes to widen a little bit. "Overall, he's low to high Chunin level." Hiruzen pondered on this revelation of new information.

'_This Daito Shikikujo must have been a very powerful Shinobi but the simple fact that I haven't heard of him makes me suspicious of what Naruto's hiding.' _He thought very deeply

"Sigh; just keep an on him. I have a feeling there's something more than meets the eye about him." Kakashi nodded and Shunshined out of the office. At the time Naruto was walking down the road turning to the stairs to his apartment, with both of his arms on the back of his head, with a smile on his face.

"**What's got you so happy kit?**" Kurama asked resting inside the cage.

"Oh nothing, just that everything is finally turning out right." With that the connection ended and he stepped into his apartment getting ready for bed.

**AN:/ Hey guys here's another chap. Sorry for the late… no _super_ late update. I had writers block and personal business to attend to. A lot of stuff a fifteen year has to do. Anyway R&R!**


	4. Chapter 4: Land of Waves

**AN: / Good news guys! I finally got my own personal laptop, and it's about time too. Seeing as how I'm only 15 and I can't get a job to gets some dough if you know what I mean but now I'm working… let's start off with saying 4X faster. Anyway lights, phones, computers, tablets, etc. ACTION! *CLAP CLAP***

"Normal voice"

'_Thinking voice_'

**"Summoning/ Bijuu voice"**

**"**_**Summoning/ Bijuu thinking voice"**_

Disclaimer: _Kami no Doujutsu does not have any claim over Naruto what so ever, except for the jutsu and characters of his creativity. Viewers discretion be advised, thank you. _

**Chapter 4: Land of Waves**

The citizens of Konoha were all going about their business, following their daily routine. It was sunny and there was a slight breeze that made always made it a good day to do anything in Konoha and gave off a serene and peaceful vibe. But there were some who would disagree. A small figure blurred and ran in-between the legs of the villagers and bumped a few of them causing them to stumble and lose their balance. People looked behind them to spot an animal dashing through everyone. On the rooftops of a building was Naruto in pursuit.

"Target is evading all advances, im in position and on standby, scouting target's location. Request to pursue." He used the small radio device for recon purposes. In a tree not far from Naruto was Sasuke.

"Im closer than Naruto, and I won't provoke the target like he did."

"Hey! How was I supposed to know that he didn't like being scratched behind the ears? Normal cats do." Naruto mumbled the last bit to himself.

"Naruto shut up, you know he's right. All you had to do was feed him the bait."

"Grrr…" Naruto was about to yell at them but was interrupted by Kakashi.

"Ma ma, don't get antsy. I'll give the go when all of you are in close range position."

"Hai sensei!" They replied. They all came close in on the perimeter of the target.

"Hawk in place."

"Cherry-blossom is set."

"Swift is ready to go."

"Alright team, hajime!" With the order at hand, they blurred and cornered the cat and all three of them caught it by its legs. Naruto put his arms under its belly-side and used his other arms to hold its front legs. Sasuke got up and looked at its ear. He radioed Kakashi.

"Target confirmed by the ribbon on its ear."

"Good job team, I knew you could do it. Let's return to Hokage Office."

* * *

"Ah so you completed the infamous capture Tora mission." Hiruzen buzzed in and called for the Fire Daimyo's wife. She came running in and hugged Tora to death. You could easily tell as it was suffocating.

"Oh, my poor little baby. Running off like that; you had me worried sick. Something could've happened to you..." She kept going on and on while swinging him around like a young girl would with her stuffed animal which Naruto was smirking at the sight. It pleased him more with each passing second.

'_Yes, squeeze the little demon to death. Ku ku ku.'_ Naruto was enjoying every second and Hiruzen sighed at Naruto's antics. '_It seems he hasn't changed all together since he's been back.'_ She threw the bag of money on the desk where Chunin Iruka caught it and counted it.

"Alright then," Hiruzen started, as he shuffled through the mission files, "Team 7, for your next mission you can: babysit a bedridden mother's son, pull out weeds in an elder's farm, walk the Inuzuka dogs or–" Hiruzen was cut off by yelp.

"NOOO Tora, please come back!" He continued to say: "Or recapture Tora." He mused; Naruto shook his head.

"No more, I'm tired and im sick and tired of doing these _chores_ that are so called missions." Sasuke agreed by nodding his head. Sakura nudged Naruto, interrupting his speech and bowed.

"I'm sorry for Naruto's outburst he didn't mean it, right Naruto?" She exclaimed sweetly, with a creepy smile plastered on her face. Naruto ignored her attempt to scare him, if he hadn't trained with Madara, who drilled everything he knew into the boy, or even was head over heels for her it might have worked but that wasn't the case, he continued.

"No," he said sternly, "I meant every word I said. Seriously, you can have the academy students do this. These don't do anything for our Shinobi training. I want a real mission." Kakashi grimaced at Naruto's words and with Sasuke supporting him.

'_He doesn't understand that I'm the one that the Hokage deals with after this.'_ He thought when he sweated a few bullets. Iruka decided to talk some sense in Naruto.

"Be that as it may Naruto, you're a rookie, fresh out the academy Genin! Everyone starts off with the basics and works their way up!"

"Yeah that may be true, but why the crappiest of all the D-rank?" He turned to the Hokage for answers.

"We send off all the D-rank missions to the Genin on their first year to build up teamwork. Naruto teamwork is essential for every ninja when performing a mission. If we sent out newly Genin on a B-rank mission they wouldn't return the same way they left if they came back at all!"

"We're not asking for a B-rank, an A-rank; none of that. Just a simple C-rank mission is all."

"Naruto–" Iruka was cut off by the hand of Hiruzen.

"Sigh, you're not gonna let this go are you Naruto?" Naruto shook his head 'no'. "Then I guess I'll give you one C-rank mission." Naruto pumped his fist in the air. Sasuke had a smirk on his face arms folded. Sakura sighed in relief but inside of her head. _'CHA now we get to test our skills and Sasuke can finally notice me.'_ Hiruzen had buzzed in the front office. Naruto noticed and asked what the mission was.

"You'll be guarding someone as they head home to Nami no Kuni." The door opened to show and old man with a straw hat. He had a grey beard surrounding his lower face. He had a bottle of sake present in his hand and was slightly drunk.

"Huh? You're giving me a bunch of brats, are they even ninja?" That comment caused team 7 to become instantly irritated. "Now the Blondie looks like he could do someone in with those staffs of his if he was trained right." Naruto didn't know whether to take it as an insult or a compliment so just eased his gaze only a little.

"Anyway I'm the super expert bridge-builder Tazuna and I expect protection from here back to Nani no Kuni to complete my bridge." He said. Kakashi spoke.

"Don't worry Tazuna-san; I can assure you that my team and I will bring you home safely." Tazuna nodded and left. Kakashi turned to his team. "Alright team we'll be leaving in 30 minutes so pack your bags.

* * *

Team seven and Tazuna were leaving the Leaf village on towards the Land of Waves. It's been only a couple of hours since they had left. It was sunny, bright and dry. They continued walking, in silence passing by a small puddle. Naruto stared at it and for a split second before turning his attention back to the road. As they were farther ahead of the puddle two figures appeared from it. They spoke to each other in whispers.

"_Gozu, let's go." _Gozu nodded towards his brother Meizu and the two demon brothers sprung and attacked Kakashi with their gauntlets by wrapping him in their chains ripping him to shreds, they headed towards the group but Naruto appeared before them and kicked Meizu towards Sasuke who had already been performing hand signs after coming over his shock.

"_Katon: Goukakyuu no jutsu!" (Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!)_ Sasuke spewed out a rolling sphere of fire that was speeding towards Meizu. He narrowly dodged it but was unprepared for Sasuke's fist connecting to his face knocking him out. Naruto on the other hand was dodging his opponent, Gozu's gauntlet and chain with ease.

"Come on, is this all Kiri has to offer for Shinobi?" He taunted, Gozu glared and started speeding up his movements.

"Don't you dare mock me! I left that retched village; soon we'll return to overthrow that tyrant of a Mizukage Yagura." Gozu's gauntlet clashed with both of Naruto's staff.

"Well, then what does you attacking us accomplish?"

"Like I would ever tell you." He pushed Naruto back and swung his chain onto Naruto's hand and pulled him forward to slash his face. As Naruto was pulled the chain was cut by Kakashi who appeared behind the mist Chunin and knocked him out with a single chop to the neck. He grabbed both of the Chunin and tied them up with rope. Tazuna starred at Kakashi in surprise.

"How the heck are you still alive?"

"I used the substitution jutsu. With that I switched a log in my place at the exact time to observe from the trees." Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto starred at their sensei with questioning glances. "I did so for two reasons, to test you three to see how you'd react in a situation as you did and I have to say I'm impressed. Sakura, you stood your ground, defending the objective, Naruto and Sasuke, you two used the teamwork exorcises and defeated your opponents with ease. I'm proud." All three of them did a silent praise of their own. Sakura was the first to escape her praising.

"What's the second reason Kakashi-sensei?" The wind blew as Kakashi sent his gaze towards Tazuna.

"It was to see who they were targeting. Care to explain why Chunin-class shinobi are targeting you Tazuna?" There were a multitude of facial emotions that painted over Tazuna's face. First it was shock, then fear, and last it changed to sorrow.

"I'm sorry I lied to you and your Hokage. All the money we could muster up was enough for a C-rank mission. We couldn't afford anything else. If you don't want to stay to continue the mission I'll understand."

"Hmm, I don't know. This changes everything. I'm pretty sure they're not alone and procedure calls for us to return to the village since this could turn out to be at least a B-rank mission. If anything it's up to these three." Kakashi said pointing to the Genin. Naruto stared at the ground for a long minute before coming to a decision.

"I say we continue. We've been this far already and it wouldn't sit right with me knowing that a village in need of help is in danger and there was something I can do about it."

"I agree with Naruto." Was all Sasuke said, Sakura nodded in accord. Kakashi smiled at his students.

"Well then I guess we'll continue with the mission." Tazuna lightened up at his words while receiving a small cheer from Naruto.

* * *

Team 7 and Tazuna were on a boat with a fellow villager from Wave Country. A heavy mist was present throughout the sky making it a little complicated to see but cleared up slowly but surely as they came closer to Wave. Sakura while sitting had been thinking about everything so far and had decided to ask a question that had been on her mind.

"So are there any ninja in your country?"

"No, our village is but a small port and fishing city. It was once a prospering village filled with life and, peace and joy, we had enough to make a living for wants and needs each year which gave every day its own difference but that all changed when a tyrant of a man named Gato came and took almost all of our profit. " Kakashi perked up at the mention of the name.

"Wait, you mean Gato of Gato corps one of the richest men in the world?"

"Yep, that very one, he leaves us the least amount of food for us to live off and he crushed ever single happiness that we had." They passed an unfinished bridged that was enormous.

'_Hmm, if this is Gato we're dealing with then we might come into contact with someone of my level.'_ Kakashi thought.

"Sugoi!" Naruto blurted out. The villager glared and chided him.

"Keep it quiet, we don't want any of Gato's men to find us." Naruto sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to be so loud. I just couldn't help but acknowledge this bridge. It's amazing." Tazuna smiled at the praise.

"Yeah, Gato took control of our village using his wealth and violence. With this bridge it will not only crush his control over our village, but it will renew and will represent our hope. When Gato had entered he took control of everything. The feudal lords of our country don't even have money, but the one thing he fears is the completion of this bridge."

"So he sees you as a hindrance to his plans." Sakura mentioned with Sasuke finishing from where she left off.

"Therefore he's sending Chunin-level shinobi after you to stop you from completing it." Tazuna nodded. The four shinobi sat in silence for the rest of the trip. The boat traveled into a tunnel that led them to a market outside the inner village.

"Alright, we'd come this far without any of his men discovering us. This is as far as I go."

"Thank you, you've been a major help." Tazuna thanked the villager who rode away on his boat with the engine become faint as he was farther away. Tazuna turned back to Team 7.

"Alright, take me to my home safely." He walked leading the way to his house.

They had finally had set foot on Wave and were onward in small woodland area. Naruto was walking and aimlessly inspecting the terrain. He heard a rustling noise in a nearby bush. He reached down towards his kunai-holder. In an instant he hurled the kunai into the bush and quickly ran to inspect it. The team had stopped walking when they saw what Naruto did. What he had found he had hit was none other than a rabbit. Sakura ran to it and tended to its care.

"Naruto look what you did! You injured a poor innocent rabbit." She cuddled the white furred creature with the broken foot, Naruto sweat-dropped at the site. He continued to stare at the rabbit when he noticed something.

'_Wait! Why does it have white fur? Woodland animals coat are supposed to be their natural color since its summertime. Their only supposed to have white fur in the winter season, so why does it... unless it was deliberately kept inside… but who?' _Naruto looked at Kakashi whose eye warped into a cold gaze as he nodded to him. Sasuke had caught on to the silent message that Kakashi had obviously told them, 'Be prepared for anything.' Kakashi's eye widened and shouted to the team and Tazuna.

"Everyone, get down!" he tackled Tazuna as the others dived towards the ground. An overly huge broadsword had spun into a tree that would've decapitated their heads. Kakashi rose from the ground to face the perpetrator. There present, standing on the handle of the sword was a tall and noticeably muscular man with pale skin, short spiky black hair, brown eyes, and small eyebrows. He was seen shirtless; with his chest only covered by a belt, wearing baggy pants with the striped pattern and mimetic wrist-warmers extending up to his elbows, with matching leg-warmers. Kakashi narrowed his eye at the man.

'_If I'm not mistaken that's…'_ The man turned his head showing his Hitai-ate slanted on his head showing the insignia for 'Mist'. Kakashi called out to him.

"Well well, if isn't the rogue Nin of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi." Naruto stood ready walking forward towards Kakashi.

"Kakashi-sensei, I got your back." He whispered.

"No, stay back with Sasuke and Sakura and protect Tazuna. He's on a whole different level than the Chunin from the other day." Kakashi reached for his Hitai-ate.

'_He being our opponent means... that things are going to get tricky.'_

"Ah, so you're Sharingan no Kakashi." Zabuza spoke. Sasuke stood in surprise before narrowing his eyes. "Sorry, but you can hand the old man over to me." Kakashi's hand was on his Hitai-ate on standby.

"Get in battle formation you guys. Protect Tazuna. Don't get involved with this fight. That's the teamwork in this situation." Zabuza glared at Kakashi. "Fight me!" Kakashi lifted his Hitai-ate to reveal a fully matured Sharingan. Naruto stared at Kakashi.

'_So It wasn't my imagination then, you do have a Sharingan. I guess I'll watch for now sensei._' Naruto jumped backwards towards Tazuna with both of his staff's in hand.

"I never expected to see the rumored Sharingan this soon. What an honor."

"W-what's this Sharingan that everyone keeps mentioning?" Tazuna asked.

"Sharingan," Sasuke said. "It's a _Doujutsu (Visual Jutsu Art)_ that only a few from the Uchiha clan are able to awaken. It allows the user to see through Gen, Tai, and Ninjutsu and the ability to deflect them. Though this not the only power of the Sharingan." Tazuna looked at Sasuke.

"**He must be wondering why someone outside his clan has the Sharingan**."

'_It's the first time you spoke in a week Kurama, but you're right. I wonder what'd happen if he found out about my Sharingan.' _Naruto thought

"Well said. That frightening eye also has the power to copy an opponent's jutsu and use it against them." A heavy mist rolled in covering everything. "When I was in the Anbu Black Ops back in Kirigakure, there was information on you in the Bingo Book that I carried around. Also in the book it told about 'the man who copied over one-thousand skills, Kakashi the Copy-ninja." Sasuke stared at Kakashi while pondering in thought about his sensei.

'_The Sharingan is a special trait that appears to a select few to even the Uchiha clan. Could it be that Kakashi…?'_ He was confused and was led to think of the possibility if Kakashi was an Uchiha, but was interrupted by Zabuza.

"Enough talk. I'm killing the old man, even if I have to go through you Kakashi." Zabuza jumped off his sword, he grabbed it, standing on top of the river. Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura stood close to Tazuna with their weapons ready. Zabuza formed the Ram hand-sign in continuance of a jutsu.

"_Ninpo: Kirigakure no Jutsu_!" (_Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu!_) A heavy mist rolled in covering the scenery as he made the Ram hand-seal disappearing into to the mist. Naruto clenched his eyes trying his hardest to see.

"Gah! What is up with this Mist? It's heavy."

"Wave country is surrounded by water so it's easy for mist to rise." Tazuna answered.

"Eight points." Zabuza's voice sounded throughout the area. "Larynx: Spine, Lungs, Liver, Jugular, Subclavian artery, Kidneys, Heart. Now… which will be my attack point?"

Kakashi flared his chakra as he released his KI. Sasuke stood frozen in fear.

'_This pure Killer Intent, I-I've never felt anything like this before._ I got to end it all'Sasuke reached for the Kunai-holder on his right leg but stopped when he heard the voice of his sensei.

"Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, don't worry I'll protect you with my. I won't allow my comrades to die trust me." He turned his head to them showing a soft smile.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Not a second later Zabuza appear between all three of the Genin and Tazuna. Kakashi's Sharingan flared wildly as Zabuza made his way to take the finishing blow on Tazuna. Kakashi used his agility to his advantage and stopped his opponent with Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto being shoved to the ground. Naruto watched in amazement at the sight.

'_Whoa, so this is a true fight between Shinobi.'_ Kakashi stood still as Zabuza was frozen. There in his stomach was a Kunai but Zabuza wasn't bleeding blood. He was bleeding water. Before you knew it the Zabuza In front of them dispersed into a pile of water. Zabuza appeared into view – standing on top of the lake. Kakashi rushed at him the two shinobi clashed; kunai vs. sword, demon vs. man. Zabuza swung his sword, fixing to cleave of his opponents head off, but Kakashi ducked, falling face forward balancing on both hands on top of the lake. He used his body strength to his advantage by swinging his body in a 360 fan sweep. Zabuza front-flipped dodging Kakashi and jumped backwards towards land with Kakashi in pursuit. Zabuza summoned three water clones.

"That's not gonna help you Zabuza." The clones dashed forward. Kakashi slashed through the first one reducing it to water. Two shadows appeared into view; he looked up to see both clones with their Kubikiribōchō. The clone on the left slammed his blade down on Kakashi's kunai. Kakashi shoved him and narrowly dodged the other. He threw his kunai at the carbon copy. Without missing a beat he pulled it out and slammed the blunt end at the other one.

"Ha haa, good foot work Kakashi but don't forget about me." The water around Kakashi formed and incased him in a sphere completely made of water. Kakashi took in a deep breath before being completely incased. "_Suiton: Suirō no jutsu._" _(Water Style: Water Prison Jutsu.) _Kakashi watched as the water wrapped around him.

"Run! Leave me and take Tazuna somewhere safe. I'll be fine." Naruto began to protest.

"B-but sensei–" He was interrupted.

"I'll be fine; the mission is our top priority!" By the end of his sentence Kakashi was completely encased and trapped inside, all to the pleasure of Zabuza.

"He heh, I don't think so you little brats." Water rose from the ground and formed into two figures, which turned out to be water clones of Zabuza. "I wonder Kakashi. Will your Genin survive before you run low on oxygen, or will you be able to escape in time just to see them cut down." Zabuza laughed menacingly. The trio looked at each other debating on what they should do.

"Sasuke-kun, Naruto; I think we should follow-up with Kakashi's plan and take Tazuna as far as we can. We wouldn't stand a chance against him."

"I agree with her, Kakashi was obviously the strongest out of all of us and he's trapped inside that jutsu. Even though I don't like it, we have to take our best bet and come back with a strategy to strike hard." Sasuke said. Naruto abruptly shook his head at the thought.

"No! We won't leave Kaka-sensei here to die, he's our sensei." He argued.

"Naruto I know you want to save him but–"

"Do you remember the first thing he taught us?! He said that '_those who abandon the mission are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.'_ If we leave him now, then we might as well give in because we would be worse than the scum like Zabuza and this Gato!" Sasuke and Sakura silenced themselves. They couldn't think of a reason why Naruto's way was wrong. And even though they didn't want to admit it, he _was_ right. Zabuza spoke.

"I'd listen to your friends' kid, there's no place in the world for wannabe shinobi like you. You think you're all special and that you're on top of the world and that this is a game. Just go home back to your _mommy_ and _daddy_ and go play ninja somewhere else brat." Zabuza said smirking. His words hit Naruto hard. He never did like it when people looked down and chastised others. His eyes shifted into ice-cold orbs.

"Don't underrate us as _callow_ children. Don't let your status and rank lead you to believe that you're unbeatable Zabuza." Zabuza frowned at him. He scoffed and dismissed Naruto's warning as an idol threat.

"Tsk, as if I'll allow a bunch of little brats to beat me." His two clones dashed at them. The trio readied themselves. Naruto turned towards Sasuke.

"Sasuke, I'm gonna need you to take out the clone on the left, and then follow up with a little teamwork." He hinted. Sasuke nodded and went after the clone on the left. "Sakura stay here and protect Tazuna with your life!" He ran after the clone headed his way. Within reach of his enemy he spun on his right heel and sliced right through his victim reducing him to water. He looked towards Sasuke's direction and saw that he handled his opponent fine. Zabuza irritated with the fact that the Genin had defeated his clones easily made more and added some projectiles in the twist. Naruto rushed to his teammate's side and threw him in the air, just in time to dodge a number of kunai and shuriken courtesy of the nuke-nin he kept the three new clones busy, buying Sasuke time to initiate their plan. Sasuke had in both hands two items a double-bladed kunai, and a windmill shuriken.

"_Fūma Shuriken: Kage Fūsha." (Demon Wind Shuriken: Windmill of Shadows.) _When he stopped ascending he spun in the air and threw both weapons at Zabuza. The shuriken pierced through the air reeling proceeding to the nuke. Sasuke landed on the ground. _'I hope you know what your doing Naruto.'_

Zabuza braced his sword, the shuriken hit dead on with Zabuza's Kubikiribōchō, still rotating wildly plus the unusual kunai didn't make it better. But, being a veteran Jōnin he batted both projectiles high in the air, which caused him to be distracted. The blonde brat, as he preferred to call him, was rushing towards him. He smirked as he tightened his grip on Kubikiribōchō with a twisted grin plastered on his face.

'_Nice knowing you brat.'_ He thought. Team Kakashi was worried for Naruto, including Tazuna. A bead of sweat rolled down his cheek as the head-cleaver was only mere inches away his face but his eyes still held coldness within them. Zabuza swung the blade but his enemy had vanished with a swift breeze left in his wake.

"What the hell! Where did the brat go?" He searched franticly for Naruto. Naruto spawned in the air where the kunai and shuriken were descending. With his trademark kunai in hand, he threw the shuriken with great strength. He called out to him.

"Zabuza I'm up here!" Zabuza lifted his head and saw the shuriken heading towards him he was stood frozen in shock.

'_How did he teleport up there? No one besides the Yondaime Hokage can accomplish such a feat. I gotta' drop the jutsu if I want to make it out alive,'_ Zabuza released his hold on Kakashi and dived away. Kakashi did the same; both Shinobi stood on water. Kakashi stood and flexed his muscles as he was now free from Zabuza's hold. He looked to Naruto's direction, which had descended from the sky onto his feet. He dropped to one knee, out of breath and sweating.

"_Jin-kokān no jutsu_ is a success." He wheezed out. Kakashi was proud of his student. _'Pure genius, he made his own variation of Minato-sensei's Hirāshin no Jutsu. By the looks of it, after using the jutsu it leaves him drained with little chakra left. But with the coming years and more practice, he'll surpass you in no time sensei.'_ He spoke to his student as he saw him try to stand up.

"I'll handle the rest Naruto." Naruto saw the sincere look in his sensei's eyes and nodded. Kakashi turned to face Zabuza and glared at him, Sharingan spinning wildly. "Let's end this now Zabuza." Both jumped backwards covering distance between themselves. Zabuza flashed through hand-signs at a fast rate. Kakashi's Sharingan pulsed and spun wildly as he copied Zabuza to the point they both were going at the same pace. Both shouted.

"_Suiton: Suiryūdan no jutsu_!" (_Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!_) Four water tendrils formed from underneath the lake into a dragon on both of the Shinobi's side. The dragon roared and coiled around each other and bit into each other's side – crashing into the lake. Zabuza glared at Kakashi as both appeared before each other and battled for dominance with their weapon.

'_Something isn't right,'_ Zabuza thought. _'His Sharingan can comprehend and replicate the enemy's technique. However, both jutsu occurred simultaneously. Could he?' _Zabuza backed up to test his theory he ran in circles and stopped by performing the hand seal for the Kirigakure no jutsu. What scared him the most was that at the same time Kakashi did every move in perfect sync.

"He's not only copying him, he moves the same way at the same time!" Tazuna stated. Sakura looked at Sasuke. "Sasuke-kun, how is he doing that?" Sasuke didn't answer, all he did was watch. Naruto was not surprised none-of-the-less. He knew all of the techniques of the Sharingan more than anyone due to his training but he did have to say he was impressed with the way Kakashi was handeling the situation.

'_My movements, it's as if… if at it's he knows what I'm –" Kakashi interrupted his thought._

"_Going to do next?" Zabuza was dazed._

'_What?! Is he reading my mind as well? The way he looks at me with that eye!'_

"It makes you in furious doesn't it?" Kakashi asked. Zabuza formed hand-seals at a slow and steady pace with a dumbfounded expression.

"All you're doing is copying me." He said, but this time Kakashi spoke at the same time.

"You can't beat me with cheap tricks. I'll crush you!"

"You can't beat me with cheap tricks. I'll crush you!" Zabuza growled in frustration and sped up his hand-signs, Kakashi followed in perfect sync. "When I'm finished with you, you'll never open that monkey mouth again!" He roared. A figure formed behind Kakashi.

'_What is that?'_ The shadowy figure became clearer to Zabuza as he saw himself behind Kakashi. _'But how, is it his Genjutsu?!' _

Kakashi finished the jutsu while Zabuza stood. "_Suiton: Daibakufu No Jutsu!" _(_Water Style: Great Waterfall Jutsu!) _The water warped and formed into a wave the rose behind Kakashi and rushed at Zabuza. Zabuza couldn't do anything as he was still in shock. The wave crashed into him and slammed him into a tree, breaking some of the bones in his body. Kakashi walked up to him. He spurted out blood and water.

"Can, can you see the future?!"

"Yes, and in your future, there is death." Kakashi was about to slit Zabuza's throat but jumped a few yards back standing next to Naruto as senbon pierced the nuke-nin's neck. Zabuza eyes closed as he fell into an endless darkness. A ninja wearing a hunter-nin mask, which was white with thin, curved eye-holes and a red wavy design in place of the mouth, as well as the Kirigakure symbol etched in the top. Kakashi narrowed his eyes at the boy.

'_He's around Naruto and Sasuke's age.'_

"Thank you for helping me capturing him, I've been on his trail for months." Kakashi nodded to him. The ninja grabbed and placed Zabuza on his shoulders and left in a quick shun-shin. Kakashi sighed before falling face forward. Naruto caught him just before he hit the ground. Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna ran over to them.

"Is Kakashi-sensei alight?" Sakura asked. Naruto nodded.

"Yeah, he just depleted his chakra and is suffering from it. He'll be fine as long as we hurry and find a place for him to rest." She sighed in relief; Naruto turned his head to Tazuna. "Is your house close by?"

"Yes it's not too far, up ahead the road." Naruto sighed as he stood up with Kakashi on his shoulders. Sasuke helped him carry their sensei.

"Naruto, what was that jutsu that you used against Zabuza to free Kakashi?" Naruto glanced at Sasuke before speaking.

"It's a _Jikūkan Ninjutsu_, or Space-time Ninjutsu. It allows me to transport to wherever I throw my double-bladed kunai and teleport there in swift movement. You can say it's almost like the Fourth's Raijin no Jutsu but mine is _far_ from matching up to his. Now let's hurry up and get our sensei fixed up." Sasuke nodded. He looked at Naruto seeing him in a whole different perspective and a newfound respect for his teammate.

_'What he did back there in that fight was on a whole different level than what even an average Genin should be able to do. I've got to step up my game and not to let him take all the fun.'_

Kurama poked his head up and conversed with his Jinchūriki. "**It was pretty risky of you to use that jutsu seeing as how you haven't tested it! I had to use my chakra to fix some tendons that had snapped inside your ankles due to the high dose of wind chakra you sent there. If it wasn't for me you wouldn't have been able to walk for at least a couple for month even with the healing of an expert medic-nin.**"

'_Aw, you actually can be sincere when you want to be.' _Naruto cooed. Kurama growled at him. _'Alright, alright; I was just playing. But thanks for the help there Kurama. I really owe you one.'_

"**Just like all the other times.**" He mumbled.

**End of Chapter**

**AN: / Hey guys, I'm finished with yet another chapter. I hoped you enjoyed. Until next time and pweeaase review.**


End file.
